5 Actors Who Were Almost Cast As The Big Bang Theory’s Penny Before Kaley Cuoco

Followers of “The Huge Bang Concept” know that, for twelve seasons and the identical variety of years, Kaley Cuoco introduced some much-needed levity to the function of Penny, the attractive and outgoing aspiring actress who strikes into the residence throughout the corridor from Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) and Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki). Penny is principally an viewers surrogate who hangs out with a bunch of intensely nerdy guys with a ton of esoteric information about science and popular culture. 

Because the resident “normie,” Penny interprets their nonsense for the viewers and, throughout the universe of the present, helps all the guys evolve. Leonard, Penny’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, is a a lot better particular person after he spends years as Penny’s associate. Penny in the end breaks Sheldon’s boundaries right down to the purpose the place he considers her one in all his finest mates on the earth. When Penny first meets Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg), he is a lecherous, irritating man; after she introduces him to his future spouse Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Rauch), Howard grows up. Even Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar), who cannot even converse round Penny at first attributable to debilitating nervousness, is modified for the higher, changing into one in all Penny’s closest confidantes.

Penny’s influence on “The Huge Bang Concept” is due largely to Cuoco’s humorous, lived-in, and sincere portrayal of the character, so it is perhaps stunning to study {that a} bunch of individuals had been thought-about earlier than Cuoco was lastly forged — together with an actress who filmed an whole pilot episode for the collection that in the end obtained scrapped. Listed below are 5 actors who virtually performed Penny on “The Huge Bang Concept.”

You is perhaps stunned to study that Academy Award winning actress Marisa Tomei almost played Penny in “The Big Bang Theory,” however it’s true! As Tomei instructed Business Insider in 2022, “I assumed it was a terrific script, and that is why we went as far as to test it out. And it is such an iconic sort of setup, all these archetypes, the scientists, after which the sort of little hottie and the entire thing.” Nonetheless, she ended up passing on it: “I definitely did not realize it was going to go on that lengthy. It wasn’t actually the appropriate match for me on the time, however I actually did benefit from the script itself.”

The method went additional than you would possibly suppose, although. In Jessica Radloff’s guide from the identical yr, “The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series,” Jim Parsons revealed he even learn with Tomei. After saying he knew he already had the function of Sheldon, Parsons instructed Radloff:

“I learn with Marisa Tomei. Johnny [Galecki] was forged by then, however he was doing a play in New York. I had come again to learn together with her. I bear in mind going to the snack room after we had been completed and telling Ken [Miller, a casting director] and Nikki [Valko, another casting director], ‘I’ve by no means been in another person’s audition earlier than!’ They usually mentioned, ‘Effectively, she was sort of actually auditioning you.’ And I went, ‘Oh, that is smart.’ However oh my gosh, what a unique world that might have been.”

As everyone knows, Tomei did simply nice regardless of not enjoying Penny on “The Huge Bang Concept.” Over time, Tomei has appeared in Oscar fare like “The Wrestler,” enormous romantic comedies like “Loopy, Silly, Love,” and joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Aunt Could to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, making her debut look within the 2016 crossover movie “Captain America: Civil Conflict.”

Again when folks had been nonetheless auditioning for the feminine lead on “The Huge Bang Concept,” the character’s identify was Katie (extra on that shortly) and as co-creator Invoice Prady recalled, Tara Reid went out for the function. Prady did not share the rest about Reid’s audition, however clearly, it did not work out … so what has Reid been doing since she auditioned for “The Huge Bang Concept?”

After incomes fame and approval for roles in movies like “The Huge Lebowski,” “American Pie,” and “Josie and the Pussycats,” Reid ended up showing in a number of direct-to-video releases on the finish of the aughts, together with “If I Had Recognized I Was a Genius” and “Clear Break/Unnatural Causes.” Fortunately, in 2013, an enormous break got here within the type of “Sharknado,” the Syfy authentic film that unexpectedly turned a camp basic. She reprised her function of April Wexler in all six of the “Sharknado” films and even appeared in “The Boys” in 2019 and “Ghosts” in 2023, enjoying herself in each.

By the point she went out for the function of Katie on “The Huge Bang Concept” — which she did, in response to Invoice Prady’s interview in Jessica Radloff’s guide — Elizabeth Berkley was already well-known for enjoying Jessie Spano on “Saved by the Bell,” starring in Paul Verhoeven’s now-reconsidered basic “Showgirls,” and flicks like “The First Wives Membership” and “Any Given Sunday.” In line with Prady, “Elizabeth Berkley went to community for the function, too. She was terrific.” Clearly, Berkley did not guide the function, however she stored appearing anyway, discovering success elsewhere on the small display screen.

In 2008, Berkley joined the forged of “CSI: Miami” within the recurring function of Julia Winston from season 6 to 7. A yr later, she booked one other recurring function on “The L Phrase” throughout its sixth season as Kelly Wentworth. Within the years that adopted, Berkley appeared in reveals like “New Lady” earlier than becoming a member of the “Saved by the Bell” reboot to reprise her function as Jessie Spano from 2020 to 2021. She was imagined to play a job in HBO’s controversial collection “The Idol,” however sadly, Berkley was a part of the present’s authentic iteration led by Amy Seimetz, which ended up on the slicing room ground.

This is a wild story: Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, who performed the imply in style woman Taylor Vaughan within the 1999 teen comedy “She’s All That,” was forged as Katie on “The Huge Bang Concept” — after which abruptly fired. O’Keefe did not converse to Jessica Radloff for her guide, however folks concerned with the present shared their recollections. Radloff notes that producers did not really feel a number of chemistry between O’Keefe, Johnny Galecki, and Jim Parsons, and as Parsons recalled, they had been all heading out to dinner (with Iris Bahr, an actress forged within the function of Gilda which was in the end minimize) when Galecki referred to as him and mentioned O’Keefe had been let go. “I imply, we had simply completed the desk learn thirty minutes earlier. Johnny, Iris, and Jodi had been already there when Jodi obtained a name from her agent saying she was being let go. I hadn’t completed a ton of desk reads in my profession by that time, however I am not an fool — I do know when somebody’s not good. And Jodi was nice. I used to be shocked.”

Casting director Nikki Valko supplied an evidence: “Jodi Lyn O’Keefe was so good within the authentic pilot as Katie, however it was only a completely completely different character. [Jodi] introduced a darkness, which simply did not work, so she was changed after the desk learn.” 

From there, the casting staff needed to discover somebody new in three days. O’Keefe ended up showing on the present later as a intercourse employee who meets Howard in Las Vegas (within the season 2 episode “The Vegas Renormalization”), and he or she’s additionally popped up on TV reveals like “Misplaced,” “Fortress,” and “Lucifer.” You may also acknowledge her as Josette “Jo” Laughlin from the favored supernatural primetime cleaning soap “The Vampire Diaries.”

At this level, the original pilot of “The Big Bang Theory” is pretty notorious contemplating that it was so dangerous that it by no means made it to air, Sadly, actress Amanda Walsh was a casualty of that first attempt. After Jodi Lyn O’Keefe was let go, Walsh was employed promptly, however the function of Katie was so harshly written that even her dedicated efficiency could not promote it to check audiences.

As Invoice Prady instructed Entertainment Weekly in 2022, Walsh “did a terrific job enjoying that character” — which means Katie, not Penny — and Chuck Lorre chimed in to say that the issues with the pilot and Katie’s character had been their fault, not hers. “She was terrific within the function, however the function was misconceived,” Lorre admitted. “It was our duty.” 

So what was the issue? Apparently, take a look at audiences simply actually hated her as a result of they instantly felt protecting of Sheldon and Leonard, each of whom Katie spends the pilot antagonizing. “Yeah, we did not understand early on that the viewers considered them as kids,” Lorre mentioned. “They had been very naive and childlike, no matter how clever they had been. They had been very weak, and the viewers did not desire a poisonous presence round them. That is why we rewrote Katie to grow to be Penny [Kaley Cuoco] and made her rather more charmed by the blokes and sort to them, versus a lady who would reap the benefits of them.”

Prady additionally shared that Walsh wished to audition for the re-tooled function of Penny, however it simply did not work out, and Kaley Cuoco ended up enjoying Penny. For her half, Walsh went on to look in reveals like “Fortress,” Lorre’s different hit collection “Two and a Half Males,” and ultimately, she turned a author on “Schitt’s Creek” — so all’s nicely that ends nicely. 

“The Huge Bang Concept” is at present obtainable to stream on Max.

Followers of “The Huge Bang Concept” know that, for twelve seasons and the identical variety of years, Kaley Cuoco introduced some much-needed levity to the function of Penny, the attractive and outgoing aspiring actress who strikes into the residence throughout the corridor from Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) and Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki). Penny is principally an viewers surrogate who hangs out with a bunch of intensely nerdy guys with a ton of esoteric information about science and popular culture. 

Because the resident “normie,” Penny interprets their nonsense for the viewers and, throughout the universe of the present, helps all the guys evolve. Leonard, Penny’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, is a a lot better particular person after he spends years as Penny’s associate. Penny in the end breaks Sheldon’s boundaries right down to the purpose the place he considers her one in all his finest mates on the earth. When Penny first meets Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg), he is a lecherous, irritating man; after she introduces him to his future spouse Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Rauch), Howard grows up. Even Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar), who cannot even converse round Penny at first attributable to debilitating nervousness, is modified for the higher, changing into one in all Penny’s closest confidantes.

Penny’s influence on “The Huge Bang Concept” is due largely to Cuoco’s humorous, lived-in, and sincere portrayal of the character, so it is perhaps stunning to study {that a} bunch of individuals had been thought-about earlier than Cuoco was lastly forged — together with an actress who filmed an whole pilot episode for the collection that in the end obtained scrapped. Listed below are 5 actors who virtually performed Penny on “The Huge Bang Concept.”

You is perhaps stunned to study that Academy Award winning actress Marisa Tomei almost played Penny in “The Big Bang Theory,” however it’s true! As Tomei instructed Business Insider in 2022, “I assumed it was a terrific script, and that is why we went as far as to test it out. And it is such an iconic sort of setup, all these archetypes, the scientists, after which the sort of little hottie and the entire thing.” Nonetheless, she ended up passing on it: “I definitely did not realize it was going to go on that lengthy. It wasn’t actually the appropriate match for me on the time, however I actually did benefit from the script itself.”

The method went additional than you would possibly suppose, although. In Jessica Radloff’s guide from the identical yr, “The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series,” Jim Parsons revealed he even learn with Tomei. After saying he knew he already had the function of Sheldon, Parsons instructed Radloff:

“I learn with Marisa Tomei. Johnny [Galecki] was forged by then, however he was doing a play in New York. I had come again to learn together with her. I bear in mind going to the snack room after we had been completed and telling Ken [Miller, a casting director] and Nikki [Valko, another casting director], ‘I’ve by no means been in another person’s audition earlier than!’ They usually mentioned, ‘Effectively, she was sort of actually auditioning you.’ And I went, ‘Oh, that is smart.’ However oh my gosh, what a unique world that might have been.”

As everyone knows, Tomei did simply nice regardless of not enjoying Penny on “The Huge Bang Concept.” Over time, Tomei has appeared in Oscar fare like “The Wrestler,” enormous romantic comedies like “Loopy, Silly, Love,” and joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Aunt Could to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, making her debut look within the 2016 crossover movie “Captain America: Civil Conflict.”

Again when folks had been nonetheless auditioning for the feminine lead on “The Huge Bang Concept,” the character’s identify was Katie (extra on that shortly) and as co-creator Invoice Prady recalled, Tara Reid went out for the function. Prady did not share the rest about Reid’s audition, however clearly, it did not work out … so what has Reid been doing since she auditioned for “The Huge Bang Concept?”

After incomes fame and approval for roles in movies like “The Huge Lebowski,” “American Pie,” and “Josie and the Pussycats,” Reid ended up showing in a number of direct-to-video releases on the finish of the aughts, together with “If I Had Recognized I Was a Genius” and “Clear Break/Unnatural Causes.” Fortunately, in 2013, an enormous break got here within the type of “Sharknado,” the Syfy authentic film that unexpectedly turned a camp basic. She reprised her function of April Wexler in all six of the “Sharknado” films and even appeared in “The Boys” in 2019 and “Ghosts” in 2023, enjoying herself in each.

By the point she went out for the function of Katie on “The Huge Bang Concept” — which she did, in response to Invoice Prady’s interview in Jessica Radloff’s guide — Elizabeth Berkley was already well-known for enjoying Jessie Spano on “Saved by the Bell,” starring in Paul Verhoeven’s now-reconsidered basic “Showgirls,” and flicks like “The First Wives Membership” and “Any Given Sunday.” In line with Prady, “Elizabeth Berkley went to community for the function, too. She was terrific.” Clearly, Berkley did not guide the function, however she stored appearing anyway, discovering success elsewhere on the small display screen.

In 2008, Berkley joined the forged of “CSI: Miami” within the recurring function of Julia Winston from season 6 to 7. A yr later, she booked one other recurring function on “The L Phrase” throughout its sixth season as Kelly Wentworth. Within the years that adopted, Berkley appeared in reveals like “New Lady” earlier than becoming a member of the “Saved by the Bell” reboot to reprise her function as Jessie Spano from 2020 to 2021. She was imagined to play a job in HBO’s controversial collection “The Idol,” however sadly, Berkley was a part of the present’s authentic iteration led by Amy Seimetz, which ended up on the slicing room ground.

This is a wild story: Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, who performed the imply in style woman Taylor Vaughan within the 1999 teen comedy “She’s All That,” was forged as Katie on “The Huge Bang Concept” — after which abruptly fired. O’Keefe did not converse to Jessica Radloff for her guide, however folks concerned with the present shared their recollections. Radloff notes that producers did not really feel a number of chemistry between O’Keefe, Johnny Galecki, and Jim Parsons, and as Parsons recalled, they had been all heading out to dinner (with Iris Bahr, an actress forged within the function of Gilda which was in the end minimize) when Galecki referred to as him and mentioned O’Keefe had been let go. “I imply, we had simply completed the desk learn thirty minutes earlier. Johnny, Iris, and Jodi had been already there when Jodi obtained a name from her agent saying she was being let go. I hadn’t completed a ton of desk reads in my profession by that time, however I am not an fool — I do know when somebody’s not good. And Jodi was nice. I used to be shocked.”

Casting director Nikki Valko supplied an evidence: “Jodi Lyn O’Keefe was so good within the authentic pilot as Katie, however it was only a completely completely different character. [Jodi] introduced a darkness, which simply did not work, so she was changed after the desk learn.” 

From there, the casting staff needed to discover somebody new in three days. O’Keefe ended up showing on the present later as a intercourse employee who meets Howard in Las Vegas (within the season 2 episode “The Vegas Renormalization”), and he or she’s additionally popped up on TV reveals like “Misplaced,” “Fortress,” and “Lucifer.” You may also acknowledge her as Josette “Jo” Laughlin from the favored supernatural primetime cleaning soap “The Vampire Diaries.”

At this level, the original pilot of “The Big Bang Theory” is pretty notorious contemplating that it was so dangerous that it by no means made it to air, Sadly, actress Amanda Walsh was a casualty of that first attempt. After Jodi Lyn O’Keefe was let go, Walsh was employed promptly, however the function of Katie was so harshly written that even her dedicated efficiency could not promote it to check audiences.

As Invoice Prady instructed Entertainment Weekly in 2022, Walsh “did a terrific job enjoying that character” — which means Katie, not Penny — and Chuck Lorre chimed in to say that the issues with the pilot and Katie’s character had been their fault, not hers. “She was terrific within the function, however the function was misconceived,” Lorre admitted. “It was our duty.” 

So what was the issue? Apparently, take a look at audiences simply actually hated her as a result of they instantly felt protecting of Sheldon and Leonard, each of whom Katie spends the pilot antagonizing. “Yeah, we did not understand early on that the viewers considered them as kids,” Lorre mentioned. “They had been very naive and childlike, no matter how clever they had been. They had been very weak, and the viewers did not desire a poisonous presence round them. That is why we rewrote Katie to grow to be Penny [Kaley Cuoco] and made her rather more charmed by the blokes and sort to them, versus a lady who would reap the benefits of them.”

Prady additionally shared that Walsh wished to audition for the re-tooled function of Penny, however it simply did not work out, and Kaley Cuoco ended up enjoying Penny. For her half, Walsh went on to look in reveals like “Fortress,” Lorre’s different hit collection “Two and a Half Males,” and ultimately, she turned a author on “Schitt’s Creek” — so all’s nicely that ends nicely. 

“The Huge Bang Concept” is at present obtainable to stream on Max.